A Look Ahead at GDC: It’s Mobile vs. Consoles in Fight for Game Developers’ Attention

If San Francisco appears to be even geekier than usual this week, there’s a reason: The annual Game Developers Conference is taking over the Moscone Center today through Friday.

AllThingsD will be there keeping an eye on two questions in particular: How is the business of mobile games changing, and how are the makers of consoles and other physical media responding to mobile’s ascendance?

This year’s conference also promises to at least touch on the growing relevance of women in the gaming community, and will also highlight the gap between small independent games studios and the larger legacy companies that are finding different degrees of success in staying relevant as their industry continues to expand and fracture.

If you only read one gaming statistic this week, let it be this one: In a pre-conference survey, GDC 2013’s organizers found that 58 percent of gaming professionals attending either last year’s conference or this one plan to release their next game on smartphones or tablets. That’s a tad greater than commitments to the Xbox 360, Microsoft’s next console, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U and Wii combined, which together garnered “next game” pledges from 56.5 percent of developers.

Nevertheless, interest in gaming hardware is still strong, particularly for established consoles and for the Android-based consoles Ouya and GameStick, both of which bested the next Xbox and the PlayStation 4 when those same survey respondents were asked what platforms most excited or interested them.

AllThingsD by Writer

AllThingsD.com is a Web site devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media. But it is different from other sites in this space. It is a fusion of different media styles, different topics, different formats and different sources. Read more »